Don’t confuse civility with information richness

Thank you.That two-word phrase can go a long way towards smoothing human communication and maintaining relationships. Yet in our hyper-charged, tech-centric world, that phrase often gets lost.In fact, I don’t see a lot of civility in my workaday life and I don’t believe I’m alone. Ironically, in this always on, never-out-of-touch world, it’s frequently much more difficult to reach people. Once upon a time people might hide behind a secretary’s clipped words to avoid answering a call. But at least you were talking with a human being. Now there’s email and voicemail.

How often have you called someone, left a response-requested message, only to have your phone call remain unreturned? If you’re like me, I’m sure it’s more times than you’d care to admit. Then what happens? Do you resort to email to try to reach the person? I know I’ve gone so far as to call, then email to try to arrange a call only to run up against the email wall. The person just doesn’t want to talk on the phone. Or doesn’t want to take the time to truly engage. You might say, what’s wrong with email? The fact is it doesn’t allow for any give or take, nuance, subtlety, or shades of gray. It’s also lousy at creative problem solving. And it’s one step removed from human life. (Fast Company)